Over the past couple weeks, I've had two very good runs of about 90 minutes, both without problems. After the first, I did the requisite cleaning and relubricating, but didn't do much of an inspection underneath. This morning, after the second run, I did my normal cleaning and lubrication. While lubricating all moving parts, I made sure that they all moved correctly, so I rotated the wheels as I moved from connection to connection. While at the eccentric for the axle pump, I noticed three things that everyone should take notice of.
1. When oiling the eccentric and then rotating the axle, the oil on the outside of the eccentric became grey, which to me is a sure sign of dirt in the eccentric. I wiped the eccentric clean and repeated the lubrication until oil that came to the surface while rotating the axle became clear. My thought here is that had I run the loco without going through the above process, there would have been premature wear.
2. When rotating the axle with the eccentric [obviously all move, but I'm paying attention to only this one], the eccentric rubbed against the water balancing tube when the eccentric was rearmost in its cycle. See the first photo below and note the difference in location of the tubing when compared to the second photo. A small notch had been worn into the tubing, which, if left untouched, would surely have worn through. The operational fear here is that the loco was receiving an ample supply of water when in fact it would be dripping on the track.
My first thought is to replace most of the silicone tubing with copper tubing and use short pieces of silicone tubing to attach the balancing tube at each end. This should increase the clearance of the balancing tube regarding both the eccentric and the flange of the right side drive wheel.
3. The same tubing from No. 2 above comes into contact with the flange of the right side/engineer side driver when gauged at 45mm, and it did so when gauged for 32mm as well as there is a visible notch in the tubing which I presume was caused by the flange when the loco was set at a narrower gauge. This tubing needs to be replaced and the interference problem needs to be resolved. Hopefully I'll solve both interferences with a single fix.
1. When oiling the eccentric and then rotating the axle, the oil on the outside of the eccentric became grey, which to me is a sure sign of dirt in the eccentric. I wiped the eccentric clean and repeated the lubrication until oil that came to the surface while rotating the axle became clear. My thought here is that had I run the loco without going through the above process, there would have been premature wear.
2. When rotating the axle with the eccentric [obviously all move, but I'm paying attention to only this one], the eccentric rubbed against the water balancing tube when the eccentric was rearmost in its cycle. See the first photo below and note the difference in location of the tubing when compared to the second photo. A small notch had been worn into the tubing, which, if left untouched, would surely have worn through. The operational fear here is that the loco was receiving an ample supply of water when in fact it would be dripping on the track.
My first thought is to replace most of the silicone tubing with copper tubing and use short pieces of silicone tubing to attach the balancing tube at each end. This should increase the clearance of the balancing tube regarding both the eccentric and the flange of the right side drive wheel.
3. The same tubing from No. 2 above comes into contact with the flange of the right side/engineer side driver when gauged at 45mm, and it did so when gauged for 32mm as well as there is a visible notch in the tubing which I presume was caused by the flange when the loco was set at a narrower gauge. This tubing needs to be replaced and the interference problem needs to be resolved. Hopefully I'll solve both interferences with a single fix.
